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South Asia Investor Review is focused on reporting, analyzing and discussing the economy and the financial markets of countries in South Asia, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. For investors looking to invest in emerging markets beyond BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), this blog is designed to help international investors looking to learn about investing in South Asia with focus on Pakistan. Riaz has another blog called Haq's Musings at http://www.riazhaq.com

Pakistani Diaspora Thriving in America

Nearly half a million people of Pakistani origin call America home. Pakistani-Americans' education and income levels are significantly higher than those of the general population of the United States. Among them are doctors, engineers, lawyers, accountants, journalists, politicians, business executives, professional sports team managers and owners, artists, actors, entrepreneurs, salespeople, policemen, soldiers, convenience store clerks and taxi, bus and truck drivers. United States is the 5th most popular destination for Pakistani-born international migrants and the 6th largest source of remittances to Pakistan. In addition to participating in local philanthropy and community activities, several Pakistani-American organizations help raise funds for schools, hospitals and other human welfare projects in Pakistan.

Pakistani-American Population:

Over 450,000 Pakistani immigrants and their children live in the United States as of 2013, according to a report compiled by Migration Policy Institute. Of these, 273,000 were born in Pakistan and the remaining 180,000 are US-born. Pakistani-American population has more than doubled in the last decade due to increased immigration, according to US Census data.

Pakistani-Americans (pop: 450,000) are the seventh largest community among Asian-Americans, behind Chinese (3.8 million), Filipinos (3.4 million), Indians (3.2 million), Vietnamese (1.74 million), Koreans (1.7 million) and Japanese (1.3 million), according to Asian-American Center For Advancing Justice . They are still a minuscule fraction of the overall US population.

56% of Pakistani-Americans have at least a bachelor's degree, much higher than 33% of Americans with college degrees. Among Pakistani-American college grads, 33% have a bachelor's degree while 23% have master's or Ph.Ds.

Median annual income of Pakistani-American households is $60,000, higher than the $50,000 median household income of all Americans. 33% of Pakistani-American households earn at least $90,000 while 18% earn more than $140,000.

About 30% of the 800,000 doctors, or about 240,000 doctors, currently practicing in America are of foreign origin, according to Catholic Health Association of the United States. Predictions vary, but according to the American Association of Medical Colleges, by 2025 the U.S. will be short about 160,000 physicians. This gap will most likely be filled by more foreign doctors.

As of 2013, there are over 12,000 Pakistani doctors, or about 5% of all foreign physicians and surgeons, in practice in the United States. Pakistan is the third largest source of foreign-trained doctors. India tops with 22%, or 52,800 doctors. It is followed by the Philippines with 6%, or 14,400 foreign-trained doctors. India and Pakistan also rank as the top two sources of foreign doctors in the United Kingdom.

Pakistanis in Silicon Valley:

is home to 12,000 to 15,000 Pakistani Americans. Thousands of them are working at Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Intel, Oracle, Twitter and hundreds of other high-tech companies from small start-ups to large Fortune 500 corporations. Pakistani-Americans are contributing to what Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee describe as "The Second Machine Age" in a recent book with the same title.

A Representative Sample of Pakistani-American Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley

Pakistani-Americans are the largest foreign-born Muslim group in San Francisco Bay Area that includes Silicon Valley, according to a 2013 study. The study was commissioned by the One Nation Bay Area Project, a civic engagement program supported by Silicon Valley Community Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, Marin Community Foundation and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy.

Overall, US-born Muslims make up the largest percentage at 34% of all Muslims in the Bay Area, followed by 14% born in Pakistan, 11% in Afghanistan, 10% in India, 3% in Egypt and 2% each in Iran, Jordan, Palestine and Yemen.

Pakistani-American entrepreneurs, advisers, mentors, venture capitalists, investment bankers, accountants and lawyers make up a growing ecosystem in Silicon Valley. Dozens of Pakistani-American founded start-ups have been funded by top venture capital firms. Many such companies have either been acquired in M&A deals or gone public by offering shares for sale at major stock exchanges. Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs (OPEN) has become a de facto platform for networking among Pakistani-American entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. It holds an annual event called OPEN Forum which attracts over 500 attendees.

Entertainment and Sports:

Kumail Nanjiani, a Pakistani-American actor-comedian, recently made news with the successful release of his feature film The Big Sick on hundreds of screens across the United States. It is a cross-culture romantic comedy based on actual events that breaks new ground by casting a brown-skinned Pakistani-American in a lead role in a movie produced and widely screened in the United States. Acquired by Amazon Studios for $12 million after a bidding war at Sundance film festival, the film has already grossed over $36 million so far.

Shahid Khan, a Pakistani-American engineer who made his multi-billion dollar fortune in auto industry, became only non-white owner of an NFL franchise team when he bought Jacksonville Jaguars for $760 million in 2011.

Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers franchise general manager is a Pakistani-American named Farhan Zaidi, an MIT and Berkeley-educated economist.

Kamala Khan is a new Ms. Marvel comic book character created by Pakistani-American Sana Amanat for Marvel Entertainment. Kamala is both female and Muslim. It is part of the American comic giant's efforts to reflect a growing diversity among its readers.

Academy Award winning Hollywood hits Frozen, Life of Pi and The Golden Compass have one thing in common: Each used extensive computer-generated imagery (CGI) created by Pakistani-American Mir Zafar Ali who won Oscar statuettes for "Best Visual Effects" in each of them.

Pakistani-American Organizations:

Rockefeller Foundation-Aspen Institute Diaspora (RAD) program identified 79 Pakistani-American organizations. Of these, 5 organizations had revenue exceeding $1m while two had over $200,000 in their most recent fiscal year. The top organizations are The Citizens Foundation (TCF), the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent in North America (APNA) and the Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs (OPEN). Other large organizations are American Pakistan Foundation, Imran Khan Cancer Foundation and Human Development Foundation (HDF). These organization help raise funds for education, health care and other development and human welfare activities in Pakistan.

Trump's America:

Some Pakistani-Americans, like members of other ethnic and religious minorities, are alarmed by the increasing bigotry in America since the election of President Donald Trump. This is particularly true of places like New York's Little Pakistan were Pakistanis were targeted after 911 terrorist attacks. At the height of the sweep, over 20,000 people in Brooklyn’s South Asian communities left the United States, a COPO survey found, according to Gotham Gazette, a New York City publication. Many sought political asylum in Canada and Australia, and some returned to Pakistan and other countries. A number of them never returned. Many had their legitimate US immigration applications pending at the time. Others had their cases in immigration courts and they were waiting for disposition by judges.

Summary:

With few exceptions, most Pakistani-Americans, making up a tiny fraction of the US population, are thriving. They have significantly higher incomes and education levels than the general US population. Pakistani-Americans are engaged in diverse occupations ranging from doctors, engineers and lawyers to large and small business owners and drivers. In addition to participating in local philanthropic and community activities, several Pakistani-American organizations help raise funds for schools, hospitals and other human welfare activities in Pakistan.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program – an Obama-era initiative providing relief from deportation to more than 800,000 undocumented young people, including more than 7,000 Indian Americans – could be repealed by President Donald Trump as early as this week.

The repeal of DACA could make recipients of the program immediately eligible for deportation. It could also strip them of their work permits and rescind in-state tuition for undocumented college students. The program also allowed its recipients to obtain social security numbers.

A study issued in January by the CATO Institute – a libertarian think tank – estimated that deporting all 800,000 DACA recipients – also known as DREAMERs – would cost the federal government $60 billion, and reduce economic growth by $280 billion over the next 10 years.

“These are American children,” said Rep. Joe Crowley, D-New York, in an impassioned press call with reporters Aug. 31. “Eighty percent of Americans support DACA, and keeping these DREAMERS right here where they belong,” he said, noting that Trump has promised compassion for undocumented children on several occasions after he was elected to office.

“They’re not here for hand-outs, they’re not here to harm, they’re here to contribute to our country,” said the congressman, who represents the Queens and Bronx neighborhoods of New York, both which host a large immigrant population.

Asked by India-West if litigation would ensue should Trump repeal DACA, Crowley responded: “We will exhaust every legal avenue. But the president could show his compassion by not prosecuting or persecuting DACA kids, and give peace of mind to these young people.”

“We cannot send these children back to the country of their birth,” he said, noting that many DREAMERs arrived as young children, and do not know the language of their native countries.

Last December, Trump told Time magazine in an interview that he would “work something out” for DACA beneficiaries. “They got brought here at a very young age, they've worked here, they've gone to school here. And they're in never-never land because they don't know what's going to happen.”

In February, Trump said the DACA executive order was one of the most difficult issues he has had to grapple with. “You have some absolutely incredible kids, I would say mostly,” hedging his remarks by noting that some were drug dealers and gang members.

But the president is under deadline to repeal Obama’s executive order: a June 29 letter sent by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatens to sue the administration if DACA is not repealed by Sept. 5. The attorney generals of eight other states – Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia – and Gov. Butch Otter of Idaho were co-signatories to the letter.

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According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services latest statistics – collected until March 31 – an estimated 7,028 undocumented Indian American students are DACA recipients, many who arrived as young children with their parents and have never been able to return to the land of their birth. India ranks 11 amongst the top countries of origin for DACA students; 7,881 have applied for the program. More than 17,000 are eligible, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute.

Pakistan ranks 22nd in countries of origin for DACA recipients: USCIS reports that 3,476 applications have been accepted to date.

There are 519,000 Pakistani-Americans as of 2015, according to Pew Research.

#Pakistani-Americans median household income is $66,000, higher than $53,600 for all #Americans but lower than $73,060 for #Asian Americans http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/08/key-facts-about-asian-americans/

The U.S. Asian population grew 72% between 2000 and 2015 (from 11.9 million to 20.4 million), the fastest growth rate of any major racial or ethnic group. By comparison, the population of the second-fastest growing group, Hispanics, increased 60% during the same period.

Population growth varied across the 19 Asian origin groups in this analysis. Roughly half of the 19 groups more than doubled in size between 2000 and 2015, with Bhutanese-, Nepalese– and Burmese-origin populations showing the fastest growth over the period. Meanwhile, Laotians and Japanese had among the slowest growth rates among U.S. Asians in the past 15 years.

No single country-of-origin group dominates the U.S. Asian population, but the largest groups are of Chinese, Indian and Filipino origin. As of 2015, 24% of Asian Americans (4.9 million) were of Chinese origin, the largest single origin group. The next two largest origin groups are Indian-origin Asians, who accounted for 20% of the national Asian population (4.0 million), and Filipinos (19%, or 3.9 million). Those with roots in Vietnam, Korea and Japan easily clear the 1 million mark as well. The remaining 13 groups in this analysis account for just 12% of all U.S. Asians.

In a meeting with Enn Eesmaa, the first Vice-President of the Estonian Parliament at the parliament House in Tallinn, Mughal said that the total number Pakistanis in the country is 200 people and vast majority of them are highest degree holders.

30 % of the community is highly skilled engineers and software engineers who obtained jobs after completion of their education in Estonia, a country of 1.3 million in the Baltic area. 20% are either self-employed or have odd jobs. The rest are mostly students of PhD, Masters and Bachelors degree programs.

Dr Yar Mohammad also briefed the Vice President of the parliament about aims and objectives of his organisation. The PEA is a platform to strengthen relationships between both countries, to increase trade and cooperation in different sectors such as e-Governance and IT. The organisation also works to promote international mobility to exchange of faculty members, researchers and students

Dr Yar also told the leading Estonian lawmaker about the cultural activities of Pakistani community in different cities of Estonia. Steps and objectives of Pakistan Association Estonia were highly appreciated by Mr. Enn Eesmaa. He emphasized on further efforts for enhancement of ties between Pakistan and Estonia.

Dr Yar Mohammad, who is assistant professor at University of Tartu, Estonia has started his efforts for exchange of students and scholars between the two countries and so far has achieved an agreement on exchange faculty members between NUST University of Pakistan and an Estonian university. During the meeting, the two sides agreed that educational diplomacy can be used as an effective tool in Pak-EU ties, especially Pakistan’s relations with Estonia.

Higher educational institutions of both sides play a significant role to promote bilateral relations, he added. Dr Yar sad that collaborative study and research projects, joint degree, consulting contracts and others activities can be increased between Pakistani and Estonia.

1) Kumail NanjianiFrom stand-up comedian to actor, Kumail has already got a few designations under his belt.The Silicon Valley star took it to the next level and carved more than a mark by writing and acting in The Big Sick – a biographical account of his love story with his (now wife) Emily Gordon. He recently appeared on SNL too – and man, what a speech!If that wasn’t enough, he will be starring alongside professional wrestler John Cena in his next venture. What more could you want?2) Faran TahirSon of veteran Pakistani actor Naeem Tahir, Faran may not be considered a household name yet but he is definitely familiar to millions around the world. You may recognize him as Raza in Iron Man (2008) or Captain Robau in Star Trek (2009).The international artist has been a Hollywood insider for over 25 years now and has guest starred in many TV series and films. His debut appearance was in Disney’s The Jungle Book in 1994 as Mowgli’s father. You can currently watch him in the hit American TV Series Scandal.

3) Sharmeen Obaid ChinoyNamed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, this charmer needs no introduction. She’s earned a couple of Oscars and six Emmys for her work as an activist and film-maker, shedding light on profound issues surrounding women inequality.She is all set to add another feather to her cap as she recently announced her next project, Look But With Love – Pakistan’s very own reality film series directed by herself.

4) Sameer Asad GardeziYou can thank this man for the hysterical one-liners in the Emmy-winning hit series, The Modern Family.The Pakistani-American screenwriter has worked for many big networks including Universal, Nickelodeon and ABC, and is also the recipient of the Writers Guild award for his exceptional writing skills. Sameer is currently writing for his next project, The Goodwin Games.

5) Dilshad VadsariaTroublemaker Rebecca Logan in the much-admired TV show Greek, is played by Pakistani actor Dilshad Vadvaria. The Karachi born star was also part of the regular cast of hit TV series, Revenge. Way to go girl!

... amid the street party scenes, wedged between the stalls heaving with sweets and succulent and spicy kebabs, another stall was showcased and getting a great deal of attention from local merrymakers: A funeral home’s stall.

Its presence on the streets during this holiday might seem jarring, even unseemly, to visitors unfamiliar with Little Pakistan. But not for local residents, virtually all of them Muslim and low-income, who are acutely aware that their struggles don’t end with death, but in some cases become manifold challenges for family and friends left behind.

As with other stalls, people stopped at this somber one too; asking a litany of well-informed questions, from the lowest rates for body embalming to the cost of being driven to the mosque where the funeral prayer would take place and then to the airport for the final journey home. The Pakistanis who stopped at the stall did not recoil because members of this financially struggling immigrant community regard burial in their homeland and making dignified arrangements for that time as a necessity; a part of life.

Not only is there the strong emotional pull to be buried as quickly as possible on native soil for religious and cultural reasons; for years, the practice of the deceased being flown back to Pakistan was the least expensive option. While an American burial was out of reach for many low-income immigrants, returning a dead body on a direct flight to Pakistan was free. Fourteen years ago, Pakistan’s national airline began transporting the country’s dead back to their homeland free of cost.

But last fall, the Pakistani airline abruptly ended its flights to the United States, saying it had become too costly. The decision has left local Pakistanis in a desperate bind when tragedy strikes.

In this South Asian New York neighborhood of mostly daily wage earners, some undocumented and with limited English proficiency, there is often comfort found in living lives under the radar. But the community now finds itself facing the issue of repatriating their loved ones in an ad hoc, haphazard manner rather than in the cohesive way of a more organized immigrant community.

For 14 years, the Pakistani immigrants in New York City only had to gather money for body embalming and the basic funeral services of getting picked up from the hospital or home, driven to the funeral home and finally to the airport. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the national carrier of Pakistan, transported the bodies of the country’s deceased citizens back to Pakistan free of cost. But on October 28, 2017, PIA flew its last flight from John F. Kennedy Airport, leaving the immigrants in New York beset with worry and fear of what to do when a loved one who wished to be buried in Pakistan dies.

From now on, aside from the approximately $1,500 to $1,800 dollars needed for the funeral services and embalming, a process mandatory for a body being transported to another country, the immigrants will also have to scramble to find money for the air travel. PIA operated a direct flight from New York to Lahore, which meant that a body would reach its loved ones in 12 hours; the other international airlines that go to Pakistan all have layovers at their respective base cities.

Bazah Roohi, founder of the American Council of Minority Women and a humanitarian worker in Little Pakistan, has seen how the airline had a tremendous impact on the financially struggling Pakistani population, making a difficult time easier.

“We could inform PIA officials a night before a body had to be transported,” said Roohi. “But now, we don’t know what the protocol will be and what more we will need to do in an already desperate situation.”

On September 13, 2018, the US Census Bureau released some of the data from the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS). The survey reflects the U.S. population as of July 1, 2017. The immigrant population, referred to as the foreign-born by the Census Bureau, is comprised of those individuals who were not U.S. citizens at birth. It includes naturalized citizens, legal permanent residents (green card holders), temporary workers, and foreign students. It does not include those born to immigrants in the United States or those born in outlying U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico. Prior research by the Department of Homeland Security suggests that 1.9 million immigrants (legal and illegal) are missed by the ACS.

“Little Pakistan” in #NewYorkCity To Be Co-Named After #QuaideAzam Mohammad Ali #Jinnah, the Founder Of #Pakistan. To honor the man, efforts were taken by various individuals and organizations in the #Brooklyn #Muslim community https://bklyner.com/little-pakistan-co-name/ via @bklyner

The Coney Island Avenue strip between Avenues C and H, also known as “Little Pakistan,” will be co-named “Muhammad Ali Jinnah Way,” after the founder of Pakistan.

“This is a really great achievement of the Pakistani-American community,” Shahid Khan, member of Community Board 14 and Pakistani American Youth Organization (PAYO) said. “Presently where we are struggling within our community, we really achieved this milestone. This is community integration in process.”

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, also referred to as Quaid-e-Azam, is still idolized by Pakistanis today. When Great Britain left India after controlling it for over three centuries, it left a place where Muslims and Hindus were in conflict.

Jinnah pushed for a separate country, a Muslim dominated Pakistan. On August 14, 1947, India was finally partitioned. But it was met with intense bloodshed and a great migration of people. Indian Muslims headed to a new free country – Pakistan, but many people were murdered along the way. Women were raped, men were dismembered, and villages were set on fire. About 15 million people were displaced and grieving.

But still, Jinnah had hope.

“My message to you all is of hope, courage, and confidence. Let us mobilize all our resources in a systematic and organized way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with the grim determination and discipline worthy of a great nation,” he had said in the past.

To honor the man, efforts were taken by various individuals and organizations in the Brooklyn Muslim community, including PAYO for several years to get the street co-named. In fact, according to Khan, the process began before September 11, 2001. But efforts were halted after the “Pakistani community was stigmatized, marginalized, and targeted,” he said.

Waqil Ahmed, president of PAYO, echoed the sentiment and spoke about the Islamophobia the community has had to endure. He said the co-naming was the “first step to bringing change within the community” as it holds a sentimental value that allows “all Pakistani-Americans to find a home within another home.”

“As a team, PAYO observes ‘Little Pakistan’ to feel segregated, as if they are intruders not only to the community but also the country,” Ahmed said. “PAYO wants to break cultural barriers, get rid of Islamophobia, and have a fusion of nationalities and culture.”

“Over the years, the community has tremendously grown,” he said. “The street co-naming is going to bring the community closer, strengthen relationships within other ethnicities.”

The resolution, sponsored by Council Member Jumaane Williams, was passed by the NYC Council last week. An official ceremony will be held later this month. Khan attributes this victory to the Pakistani youth.

“The second generation is more aware, more active, and more educated. That’s why things were done successfully,” Khan said. “Youth is the architect of any nation. I believe each generation should live better than the last.”

Kashif Hussain, a community activist who ran for District Leader and lost, says his run (and the fact that he got close to 8,000 votes) may have made a difference – the community is finally being taken seriously, he said.

“The resources and requests like co-naming the street are being brought to the community,” he said. “It’s a sign of good things to come in the future for South Asian communities. Our work for the betterment of the community continues.”

Hussain believes it’s about time “Little Pakistan” was co-named.

“Elected officials have made a lot of promises over the years but nothing really big happened,” he said. “As a community leader and a political candidate, this is making me more dedicated and motivated to keep fighting for more causes and deficiencies in our neighborhood and district.”

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San Francisco based Cloudcade has announced it will invest $6 million to set up a game development studio in Lahore, Pakistan, according to Venturebeat.

The Lahore studio will be led by Ammar Zaeem, cofounder of Pakistan’s mobile game studio Caramel Tech which already has a team of 50 engineers.
The move is a big investment into Pakistan as a tech hub, and it shows how the game business is expanding around the globe.

Cloudcade:

Founded by Di Huang in 2013, Cloudcade is known for its popular multiplayer game "Shop Heroes" that pits players against each other in a competition to create the best shop they can. If a player can make a better store and perform more tasks than his or her rivals, he or she wins.

The game is available on the Apple iOS App Store, Google Play, Samsung Galaxy Store, Amazon, Kongregate, and Facebook. It is now also supported on the Apple Watch.

43.5% of Indians, the highest percentage in the world, say they do not want to have a neighbor of a different race, according to a Washington Post report based on World's Values Survey.

About Pakistan, the report says that "although the country has a number of factors that coincide with racial intolerance – sectarian violence, its location in the least-tolerant region of the world, low economic and human development indices – only 6.5 percent of Pakistanis objected to a neighbor of a different race. This would appear to suggest Pakistanis are more racially tolerant than even the Germans or the Dutch".

Housing Discrimination:

It appears that there is a small but militant minority in Pakistan that is highly intolerant, but the vast majority of people are tolerant. My own experience as a former Karachi-ite is that there is little or no race or religion based housing segregation, the kind that is rampant in India where Muslims are not welcome in most Hindu-dominated neigh…

Pakistan's human development ranking plunged to 150 this year, down from 149 last year. It is worse than Bangladesh at 136, India at 130 and Nepal at 149. The decade of democracy under Pakistan People's Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has produced the slowest annual growth rate in the last 30 years. The fastest growth in Pakistan human development was seen in 2000-2010, a decade dominated by President Musharraf's rule, according to the latest Human Development Report 2018.

Human Development in Pakistan:

UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI) represents human progress in one indicator that combines information on people’s health, education and income.

Pakistan saw average annual HDI (Human Development Index) growth rate of 1.08% in 1990-2000, 1.57% in 2000-2010 and 0.95% in 2010-2017, according to Human Development Indices and Indicators 2018 Statistical Update. The fastest growth in Pakistan human development was seen in 2000-2010, a decade dominated by President M…

I am the Founder and President of PakAlumni Worldwide, a global social network for Pakistanis, South Asians and their friends. I also served as Chairman of the NEDians Convention 2007. In addition to being a South Asia watcher, an investor, business consultant and avid follower of the world financial markets, I have more than 25 years experience in the hi-tech industry. I have been on the faculties of Rutgers University and NED Engineering University and cofounded two high-tech startups, Cautella, Inc. and DynArray Corp and managed multi-million dollar P&Ls. I am a pioneer of the PC and mobile businesses and I have held senior management positions in hardware and software development of Intel’s microprocessor product line from 8086 to Pentium processors. My experience includes senior roles in marketing, engineering and business management. I was recognized as “Person of the Year” by PC Magazine for my contribution to 80386 program. I have an MS degree in Electrical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
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